The formation of a molded door skin from a flat wood composite, and a hollow core door manufactured therewith, is known in the art. For example, see Moyes, U.S. Pat. No. 6,312,540 and Moyes, U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,183, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. The wood composite may be particleboard, flake board, hard board, or medium density fiberboard (“MDF”). The wood composites often utilize a resin binder, which frequently is a thermal setting resin, in order to maintain the wood fibers forming the composite in solid form.
Standard molded door skins are formed from a relatively thick non-solid mat or bat of material, which is thereafter compressed in a press to a relatively thin, final thickness. The mat is in a flexible state prior to the pressing operation, and the resulting solid skin may have sharply defined features because the wood fibers conform to the shape of the dies under heat and pressure. Standard molded door skins may provide contoured features desirable to consumers, but are relatively expensive to manufacture due to the tooling costs.
A flush door skin is one that is flat or planar on both major surfaces. Such skins are less expensive to manufacture than standard molded skins. A wood composite flush door skin blank may be transformed into a molded skin by post-forming the flush door skin, as disclosed in the above referenced patents to Moyes. Thus, contoured features may be achieved using a flat blank by subsequently post-forming the blank to a desired contour.
A molded door skin may include features simulating stiles, rails and panels. Such features are desirable to consumers. Contoured features and wood grain textures may be pressed into the blank during compression. However, a different die set is required for different panel and door configurations. For example, the die set used to form a molded door skin having two simulated panels between the stiles may not be used to form a molded door skin having three or more simulated panels between the stiles. In addition, a new die set is required for different length door skins, even if the panel configuration is similar, given the panel dimensions are different.
With conventional molded door skins, the veneers and overlays applied to such skins do not provide an appearance of having separate stiles and rails. This is because the pattern of the veneer or overlay, such as a paper overlay, foil, or the like, is oriented in one direction on the entire visible surface of the door skin. In that event, the wood grain pattern runs parallel to the stiles, but perpendicular to the rails because the rails and stiles are oriented at a 90° angle. Therefore, the door does not present an appearance of being a solid hardwood door having separate stiles and rails, which is desirable to consumers.
In an attempt to overcome this problem, some methods provide for positioning separate pieces of veneer or paper overlay, so that the pattern on the veneer or overlay may be oriented as desired. For example, pieces of veneer corresponding to the size of the rails are positioned on the blank at positions corresponding to the rails. However, the overlays must be carefully aligned, thereby increasing time and cost in door manufacture. Furthermore, even if the overlay is properly aligned, the overlay may not be secured onto the blank consistently. In addition, a specific die set for molding the blanks is required for each door skin configuration.
In one attempt to provide a door having an appearance of separate stiles and rails, a groove is routed from a main panel, forming stiles and a raised infill panel. Rails are then secured to receiving surfaces adjacent the simulated raised infill panel. Although the appearance of the door produced therefrom is improved, it is not cost efficient. The rails are positioned on predetermined receiving surfaces adjacent the raised infill panel. Therefore, any variations in panel configuration require that a new blank and routing pattern be utilized. If the main panel is molded, multiple die sets are again required for multiple panel configurations. Therefore, such a method does not solve the manufacturing and inventory problems noted above.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a universal door skin blank that is inexpensive to manufacture, and that solves the above noted problems. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a universal door skin blank that may be used for various panel and/or rail configurations.